Saturday, March 31, 2007

Good to see the fire station bond pass, i think some times liberalsthink conservatives are antigovernment, that is not true we are forgovernment that does what government is suppose to do and i think fireprevention falls under protecting our properties which is why isupport the fire department and the efforts made by the volunteers tomake this victory happen. i have seen signs all over town saying thankyou, well i think the election tuesday was the publics way of sayingthank you to the fire department, so thank you fire department youshould not have been put through what you were put through to get thisimprovement to your facilities.the bond referendum should have beenfor the arc, not you the arc is an extravagance that we conservativesbelieve government does not need to be involved in, and it is too badpeople feel it is necessary to impose their will for something thatdoes not have the support of the community that the fire departmenthas.

By the way is paying for construction payments for the arc through thecity reserves a proper way to conduct city business? I dont think itsillegal is it? Definetly unethical.

Saw Tommy Thompson in Davenport today he drew a good crowd lots offriendly faces a nice guy , but i think it is a little past his timefor President he said he had been up for 23hours straight, and he didseem pretty tired, but i dont think i would have done as well on suchshort sleep and i am at least 25 years younger thank him so he is okwith the plain blunt guy.

While i am at it i am enjoying the experience of the nominatingprocess and having these contenders coming to Iowa, it is a specialthing and the leaders of both parties have an obligation to keep Iowasfirst in the nation status, it brings a common man approach to how wepick our president.timothy l grover the plain blunt guy

Sunday, March 25, 2007

When the Democrats took control of both the House and Senate this past November, many of us worried about what would come out of the State House. However, I don't think any of us could have envisioned the liberal agenda being pushed. We have had "Fair Share", a cigarette tax increase, and now we are treated to.....election day voter registration. That's right, this past Tuesday bill HF-653 passed the Iowa House by a vote of 54-45. This bill will allow people to register to vote at the polls on election day. It doesn't stop there though. An election day voter registration applicant is to provide proof of identity and residency; however, if this applicant cannot provide a valid ID, simply having someone from the same precinct vouch for them being who they say they are will be good enough. An amendment to this bill to require an ID to register was voted down. Amendments to force county attorneys to investigate suspected voter fraud and to make same day voter registration applicant's vote provisional were also shot down. My question is, why? Even if one were in favor of same day voter registration (which I am not), why wouldn't you want to implement these steps to make sure everything was on the up and up? This stinks of voter fraud, and I don't like it.

I attended a trade show today with my mother and wife in Peosta this afternoon. At the show, we talked to several vendors who spoke of how businesses in Iowa have been hurt by the passing of the cigarette tax. One Clinton convenience store has seen it's cigarette sales down 75% since the tax was signed by Gov. Culver. This has resulted in a daily loss of nearly $5,000 dollars per DAY. I am sure other businesses, especially those close to bordering states have felt this as well. If we are to believe Chet Culver and Iowa Democrats, these people have "gotten smart" and sworn off smoking. The reality of the situation is that they are simply taking their business across the river.

I myself am not a smoker, but if someone wants to smoke (so long as they don't subject me to it) I don't have a problem with it. People I have talked to were shocked when I informed them that this "noble" effort to raise cigarettes taxes was just an ordinary tax raise, since all the extra revenue will go directly into the general fund. Raising this tax has been nothing more than a play to give tax and spend Democrats more play money, and smokers are picking up the tab this time.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Just got back from Jones county and an appearance by Tom Tancredo, boy what a great experience. Being the plain blunt guy, I would say Congressman Tancredo qualifies to join the plain blunt club. He spoke well of service to country and of being in office to do something instead of being something. I can't help but believe this is the kind of attitude we are looking for in this country, with the illegal alien problem that Congressman Tancredo is talking about; it is leading to many problems that we are facing in this country today. Let's be clear -- we are talking about ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, many of these people are causing crime, and over burdening our health care system. It is not fair to the people who immigrated legally. My wife is a second generation American, her father's family came here from Holland through the usual way of immigrating and they did just fine. Also, an endorsement from Bill Salier did not hurt at all. As Bill said lets start looking at candidates who live like Reagan did not talk like Reagan did and not do anything about it.

I know in the past I have said I will talk about national issues and how they effect us locally. Well this is exactly the issue I was talking about. The drug dealers and workers coming across the border are showing up here in Iowa, and causing a drain on all of our services, either through social services, health care or housing, and it is the one issue that is touching every part of our society.

How you say? Well, let's look at my father in law, who is now deceased. Imagine coming from Holland, growing up in Iowa, serving in World War II, coming back and getting married, and working for someone for two years to save up enough money to buy and work your own farm the rest of your life. The American dream right? Well how many stories can we point to today like that? I understand the renewal of the farming industry, with young farmers is obviously a problem, and what has lead to that? First of all working two years to save up for the price of a farm is unheard of today. The increased valuation caused by the government saying your land is worth more is almost enough to keep you out and why do they need to say your farm is worth so much? TAXES !!! Why are the taxes up? Because maybe the increased demand on social, health and law enforcement services caused by people who are here that their own home country will not even take back when they get in trouble, are stretching our resources.

Be sure to vote for the fire station improvements on Tuesday this week. Yes, I know it is a tax increase, but we would not have to do this if they did not build the new cement pond which I understand is being paid for out of city reserves at this time. What a mess. I know one thing, it is not the Fire Department's fault.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Chet Culver signed into law this week Senate File 128, which raised the cigarette tax $1 per pack. This tax will apply to other tobacco products as well. Along with House and and Senate Democrats, Governor Culver has made it apparent to his constituents that the government has a much greater idea of what is good for you than you do. This new tax comes with great promises; Culver has touted that this tax increase will “prevent 37,000 Iowa children from smoking and save nearly 20,000 lives”. My question is, who came up with these arbitrary numbers? Anytime I see “statistics” like these that are completely made up I am very skeptical. I'm sure if one were to present this question to Culver or any other Democrat for that matter, they would respond by saying that those numbers aren't what is important, it is the intentions of this legislation that we should care about.

A major portion of this bill as it was originally presented by the media was altered significantly with very little fanfare. The original House version of this bill would have taken the revenue from this tax increase and placed it into the Healthy Iowa Tobacco Fund. The Senate version of the bill, which is what Culver has signed into law, places this money in the General Fund. By placing this money in the general fund, we must see this for what it truly is – a plain old tax increase, plain and simple.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Nice to see the weather changing finally, it was really quite a shock to have the time spring forward so soon. Usually you have a couple of weeks to gradually get used to the sunrising and setting at different times. Sure is a different feeling.

Well the demos raised the cigarette tax, and all of the demos I know who smoke forgave them for it, can you imagine that? talk about totally indoctrinated in the program I am beginning to think that the Democrat supporters are totally brainwashed, what could be a bigger stab in the back than to run around saying I am for the poor man and then raising the taxes on one of the things that the poor man uses to relax? Don't get me wrong, I am not a smoker but the general population doesn't realize this is really a freedom issue. I personally know that one local anti-smoking activist is now going to push to ban smoking in the general public, i.e. streets, and parks. Before you know it they will even arrest you for smoking on your own property. Total totalitarianism, well I told him that can work both ways. I told him I will start a petition to ban all activists from coming into your business and soliciting you to change work place policy. I may even make it illegal to distribute literature on the street about your special issue no matter what it is, especially to people who smoke, on top of that maybe we could ban protesting the war on public property, wow just think of the possibilities, my activist friend didn't think I was very funny. He said smoking offends him, I said activist protests against the war, and soliciting business to change policy when they should be working on other things offends me. He didn't know what to say.

The solution to the smoking problem is very simple, it is supposed to be a public health issue, well the best way to eliminate a public health issue is we all pay our own health bills and then we don't have to burden our fellow man with our troubles. See, it all comes back to the social security, and Medicare issue again. When they created these programs they didn't have disability, and public health issues were viruses, colds ,flu other communicable diseases. These problems could wipe out a society that is what a public health issue is -- self inflicted problems from smoking or overeating are not public health problems, they have become one because of our socialized medicine system. If the liberals are worried about public health maybe they should be more concerned about terrorism, suit case nuclear bombs, or chemical weapon attacks are pretty hard on the public health also.

The fight's not over on the so-called "Fair Share" bill. After passage by the Senate, state representatives were scheduled to debate the bill on Thursday, but discovered they did NOT have the votes to pass the bill. Therefore, they went into caucus, seeking to force a few of their Democratic representatives to change their minds and vote in favor of the bill. Two Democrats (Rep. Dolores Mertz and Rep. Dawn Pettengill) left the causus rather than bow to pressure from their leaders.

It's important to speak up now that there's still a chance to defeat the bill. Email or write to your representative to weigh in on this bill. Rep. Schueller reportedly plans to vote for the "Fair Share" bill, so it's important for him to know his constituents are against it! Do you know any non-union teachers, state, county, or municipal workers? Ask them to send an urgent message as well.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Here we go again... The fair share bill passes on a compromise, they exempted private industry. What could our party out in Des Moines be thinking? What kind of bargaining position are the state, counties, or municipalities going to have if they come to a stalemate and all of their employees walk? There isn't even the possibility of having any employees who will not be obligated through union membership to stay and do their job. They will all be union employees now and can strike in mass. Don't tell me about safety -- employees can't strike, all the unions do is unionize an exempt job and then they go out on strike, in support of their public safety brothers. Ever hear of a garbage strike in New York City? This is not how a party interested in smaller government should behave. Remember the operative word here is compromise!

What a shock, to my understanding of this the Maquoketa Schools Budget is at least three times larger, than the City of Maquoketa's budget. How do we get any service from the city with such a limited amount of funds? Or what is it that the school does that demands so much more money? I don't know if it seems city government is ineffective anymore, and unable to balance its budget it is obvious that that the city has champaign tastes on a beer budget. This also is a tribute to our Fire Department imagine how strapped the budget would be if the department was not volunteer, and every fireman was about to be unionized thanks to our brave state legislature? To me the whole comparison comes down to how many employees does it take to educate our children which can conservatively be 50% of the general public, or how many employees does it take to plow our streets, mow the grass on our public properties, and enforce our laws, and protect our properties. Now I know why I prefer to be on the highway during a snow storm instead of driving around in town the road conditions are usually better, and it is not the cities fault, they are doing the best they can with what they have.

Well I haven't done this for a few weeks, but I have a congratulations to give to Michael Eisner former CEO of Walt Disney Inc, yep Micheal turned 65 this week way to go Mikey hope you enjoy the full social security, and Medicare benefits you have fully qualified for at this time. Never mind that Mike enjoyed a retirement benefit of over $100 million dollars which I do not begrudge him one bit, he earned it, on top of his earnings from the years he held his position. But what does it say about a system that is providing the same benefits to a person who can buy his own hospital with staff, and somebody who worked their whole life and is living on $800 a month. Mike is pretty smart he got out because he realized there is an entire generation coming along that will have trouble providing food, and shelter for their families, much less buy movies about cute little bears. oh pooh!!

Friday, March 09, 2007

Good news - Bad news from the Iowa Senate--the so-called "Fair Share" bill passed through the Senate in modified form. The revised bill affects only teachers and government workers, while the original bill would have required all employees--public or private--who are affected by a collective bargaining agreement to pay a fee.

Isn't it ironic that the two unions who probably lobby the Legislature the most stand to benefit from this bill? Now all the non-union teachers and governmental workers will have to help those unions lobby even more!

I haven't seen any statistics on the teacher's union, but a recent AP news article noted that 25% of state employees are non-union members. That's 4,000 people that will be required to start paying union fees. They couldn't convince those 4,000 people that union membership would be beneficial, so now those same people will be forced to pay fees. Add county and municipal workers to the equation, and those unions will suddenly see a big influx of funds!

Another bill to watch is the education bill, which also includes provisions that are helpful to the teachers' union.

Why does the Legislature think they need to help the unions? If the unions are so beneficial, employees would be fighting to join them. Then, those unions wouldn't need the Legislature to pass a bill requiring related non-union workers to pay fees.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

After much debate the past several weeks about proposed “Fair Share” legislation, things have been relatively quiet the past week or so. According to Iowa House Minority Leader Christopher Rants, there are some Democrat Representatives who claim that this issue is “off the table” for at least the rest of the year. Rants predicts that ultimately the “Fair Share” proposal will be modified by Democrat supporters to include only public employees in an effort to get this piece of legislation passed. You can read Rep. Rant's entire column on the Krusty Konservative blog by clicking here.

On the topic of labor issues, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill this past week (HR 800) that would allow a union to establish itself in a workplace after receiving a simple majority of workers declaring their support. Our 1st Congressional District Representative Bruce Braley voted for this measure, while Iowa's two Republican Representatives, Tom Latham and Steve King, voted against this bill. A Republican amendment to this bill was shot down, which proposed to ban union “salting”. “Salting” is a practice used frequently by unions in which a union supporter joins a company payroll in attempt to organize a union. If they happen to fail, these people make allegations of unfair labor practices against said company. Again, Bruce Braley voted against this practice with our Republican Representatives from Iowa voting in favor of this amendment. Bill HR 800 will now be sent to the U.S. Senate.

The South Carolina Straw Poll was held this past week. Duncan Hunter surprised many by taking second place behind Rudy Giuliani. Although the true value of a Straw Poll this far from the Primaries is debatable, this will no doubt be viewed as a huge positive for Hunter's campaign.

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Hi everyone. I took last week off for my niece's wedding. The weather cut the party short but it had an old fashioned feel to i., Now my niece can tell her grand children that when she was their age she had to go to a one room church in snow up to her you know what to get married.

I want to commend Superintendent Huckstadt for proposing a tax cut. It was a nice headline to see in the paper -- “School Proposes Tax Cut”, something you don't see very often. I kind of have mixed emotions about cutting staff, in business we should never employ more people than we have work to do, but at the same time since the school employees are the best paid people in our town, I hate to see the loss of a good paying job, especially since so few are to be found in Maquoketa. Either way I think Superintendent Huckstadt, and the board can be commended, building a $6 million dollar addition, and cutting taxes. good job!!

P.S. I am aware they are also factoring in the increased funding from the state, but they were not obligated to pass it on so i still think it is commendable. Yes of course we are paying for it in some way, so let me take this time to say we do need to get away from over reliance on government, and start paying our own way, then we will truly experience the freedom our founding fathers envisioned.

While I am at it, why is it that private industry pays better than public education, for employees with the same training, despite the fact that they have to derive their income from the open market, usually on a charge per service basis. Public schools have a guaranteed income through the tax system. Until we answer this question, I do not think we will have total peace and confidence in our education system.

I see that Pat Deppenwolf died from Bellevue. I was reading about the situation what her sons were going through about having their brother Mike come home from Iraq, and the leave was being denied despite the fact they could prove she was terminally ill. I think it is terrible that nothing got done in this case, it is hard to believe that the service could not spare him for two weeks to go home and see his mother before she died. I know he might have had to take another leave for the funeral, but maybe it was more important to the family, and to her to see him before she died, it is kind of tragic to let him come home now. This is not what we are fighting this war for, I think the family should have been given a choice come home before the death, and not take a leave afterwards, which i can only assume is what the family would have been happy with since they wanted a leave before she passed away. I don't know, but one thing is for sure this was not right!!!!